Hidden Divinities

Moore, Michael, ETC.: A Review of General Semantics

Over 100 years ago, Henry Preserved Smith, an American biblical scholar whom the Presbytery of Cincinnati tried for heresy in 1892, claimed to have found about 150 names of divinities in the Jewish Bible, many of them given to individuals. He commented on the widespread use of theophorous proper names in ancient times, "however startling to modern ideas" (Smith, 1907; see also Faulkner, 2008, p. 149). Current anthroponomastics, however, belie his misplaced and premature observation: This practice remains with us to this very day. Furthermore, though I doubt that believers in omnipresence had this in mind, the names of divinities appear in many other contexts, as well, Many of these hide even from native speakers of the languages involved. Who notices nowadays the word for "god" in English "gossip" ("god sibb") or in Russian "spasiba" ("thank you"; a contraction of "spasi bog" or "save you god")? Chances of recognizing the godly element further diminish when it comes from a foreign language, such as the Greek "theos" in "enthusiasm" or the presence of the Hebrew ending "ya" ("god") in "hallelujah."

While I certainly do not pretend to provide an exhaustive list, the following will give a taste of the contemporary ubiquity of the names of gods (Harrak, undated; see also Souvay, 1911).

Names

For the use of theophorous given names, Mozart can serve as a good example: He called himself Amadeus, Theophilus, or Gottlieb, at different times, all meaning either the lover or the beloved of god (same as Habibullah). Patrinomials can also contain "god," as in Goodrich, Gottschalk, Gottfried (same as Godfrey and perhaps also Geoffrey), Gottlieb, Gotthard (Goddard), Gottwald, Gottwin (probably the source of Godwin and Goodwin), Gottesman, Gottdiener (cf. Abdallah), Herrgott, and so on. Some of these appear as both given and family names.

A large group of given names contains either as a prefix or a suffix one (and sometimes two) of the Hebrew morphemes that mean "god" (el, ya, yahu, yeho, yo), such as Daniel, Emanuel, Gabriel (and its Arabic equivalent, Jibril), Michael, Moriah, Raphael, and so on (many of these have both feminine and masculine forms). Several have entered English in a somewhat different form, where the original god-name has become less recognizable, as in Elias, Elizabeth (and Eliza, Lisa, Elspeth, etc., but not Alice), Elliott, Jesus, Joachim, Joel, John, Jonathan (but not Jonah), Joseph (an appellation), Josh, Lazarus, Matthew, or Michele.

Here follows a further list of some interesting examples of human names containing the name of divinities that stem from different cultures and languages:

Beizebub (aka Lord of the Flies
Bogornil and Bogdan
perhaps David (as well as Dawson, Dawkins, Dewey), after a sun-god
named Dodo
Dimitri
Doris
Denis, Denise, and Dion
Dominic and Dominique
Elimelech
perhaps Esther
George and its Russian form Yuriy
Godiva
Ishrnael
Israfil
Issa and Eisa
Marius, Martin, and perhaps Mark
Mordecai
Osmond, Oscar, and Oswald
Rhea
Thea, Theodore, and Dorothea (but not Theobald or Tibalt).
The shortened forms Dirk, Diederick, and Dieter do not contain the
crucial first element; the Russian form Fjodor, however, does
Tiffany
Timothy

In addition to the several Arabic names included in the above list, hundreds more employ one of Allah's many appellations, used by Muslims, from Abdul-Alim Servant of the Omniscient through Abdul-Latif--Servant of the Kind One to Abdul-Wahid--Servant of the One.

Entering the Hindu pantheon provides endless further opportunities due to the large number of divinities and their many appellations. As in the case of Muslim names, mostly these appellations serve as given names, rather than the names of the gods and goddesses themselves. A few examples out of hundreds: Aditri (the goddess Lakshmi), Anish (the bold Shiva), Anwita (the goddess Durga), Kalidas (servant of the goddess Kali), or Mahasweta (the goddess Saraswati). …

The rest of this article is only available to active members of Questia

Print this page

While we understand printed pages are helpful to our users, this limitation is necessary
to help protect our publishers' copyrighted material and prevent its unlawful distribution.
We are sorry for any inconvenience.